Lord Commander
by Moirae Ma'at
Summary: Jim's life had always been ruled by grief and charisma, so it wasn't any surprise when the first lost him the Enterprise and the second made him the best teacher in the Academy.


**Summary:** Jim's life had always been ruled by grief and charisma, so it wasn't any surprise when the first lost him the Enterprise and the second made him the best teacher in the Academy.

**Warnings: **Mentioned non-graphic rape, mind melds, mentioned drugs, previous Spock/Jim.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Trek in any of its incarnations or any of the affiliated people, objects, technology, movies, or inventions. They are being used here for non-profit purposes and purely for fun.

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_**Lord Commander**_

_**By Moirae Ma'at**_

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**Chapter 1: Settling In**

Who would have though James T. Kirk would end up as a teacher at Starfleet Academy after his first tour ended? Jim definitely wouldn't have, but here he was settling into his office at the Academy and planning his schedule for the next several weeks. He would have loved to be relaxing with Spock right now and planning to take off for another five years with his beloved Enterprise and her crew, but there was no point in captaining a ship when the command crew treated their captain with cold distain.

Five months ago he had been drugged and raped on shore leave at Planet LXVII, but when he had returned to the quarters he shared with Spock to ask his bondmate for help, the quarters were completely empty of every trace of his Vulcan First Officer. Kirk had carefully taken care of his own injuries – he'd been raped before, he knew what to do – before showering and collapsing exhausted on his bed, vowing to talk to Spock in the morning.

The next day Jim had barely woken with enough time to shower and change before starting Alpha shift on the bridge, where all of his command crew had glared at him accusingly and spoken coldly whenever they addressed him. He had tried to talk to Spock about why the Vulcan had moved out of their quarters, but the other male had simply responded that it was logical to cease sharing quarters when a relationship ended and therefore he had vacated the premises. Spock had then excused himself from the conversation, leaving Jim standing in the hallway shocked.

After dealing with the scornful attitudes of his bridge crew for almost a week, Jim had retreated into a Taurus IV mindset: protect yourself, feed yourself, heal yourself, show no emotion, be strong, protect the young and helpless. The captain had been careful to adapt the replicator in his quarters to make both food and medical supplies while simultaneously scouting the records of the ship for information about his cadets and redshirts. No one could say that Jim wasn't a resourceful person. He made sure to change the duty rotations so that all of the cadets and newer redshirts were evenly distributed across the duty shifts so it was easier for him to watch out for them.

James Kirk had closed himself off from his bridge crew, reverting to titles whenever he addressed his crew, and ceased to bring the usual crew with him on first contact missions, instead taking the younger cadets when he beamed down to new planets. The crew probably had thought he was crazy for doing it, but when the redshirts came back safe and sound, everyone else had quieted down. Jim had been injured on the first mission, but he had concealed that fact and used the medical supplies from his quarters to heal himself. Enterprise's record had continued to improve with fewer and fewer injuries caused by first contact with new races as the captain had continued to be accompanied by the newer crew members, so Starfleet had allowed the practice to continue. Besdies, the Captain's paperwork had suddenly become meticulously correct, which certainly made life easier for Starfleet. They gave him the benefit of the doubt and he made sure they didn't regret it.

The number of incidents caused by Jim had decreased, with the Captain rarely seen in the hallways or the mess, but the accompanying decrease in the number of injuries on away missions was because Jim had been working with his away teams so they didn't get hurt as often. He had taken the cadets and newer redshirts into the holodeck every day in the middle of Beta and Gamma shifts. Kirk worked with them inside the simulations on first contact drills, fighting practice, and improving on their specializations. He'd worked with Cadet Hervail on her Klingon and Romulan, Cadet Umlail on computer programming, Ensign Johnson on his strategy, along with the specialties and weak points of several other cadets and redshirts stationed on the Enterprise.

Jim had been surprised when all of the younglings he had been teaching on the Enterprise had left the starship when he had resigned from being Captain and had reentered the Academy when they had learned that he was going to be teaching there. That they would give up the chance to crew the flagship in exchange for staying with him was both shocking and heartwarming, proving their loyalty beyond doubt.

Jim could leave the Enterprise, but he couldn't leave Starfleet; there was nothing for him to do if he left. He wasn't going back to the cornfields of Iowa and he refused to settle on a new planet where Taurus IV could happen again. He might not be able to trust a command team again after the betrayal of the Enterprise, but he was still Starfleet's Golden Boy and they didn't want to lose him either. Besides, there were no ships available for him to captain anyway. He'd volunteered to teach, as he'd always been ahead of his classes – how else could he have done the Command track in 3 years? – and he'd done pretty well working with the cadets and redshirts on the Enterprise before he left.

The Fleet wasn't quite sure what to do with Kirk as a teacher, so they had cobbled together a few classes based on his school records and hoped that he'd be able to teach them. The faculty had remembered the Kobayashi Maru fiasco and signed him up to teach several programming seminars, in addition to a command-track course based on his experience as Captain of the Enterprise. He'd volunteered to teach the Starfleet Law class due to the time he'd spent as a child going over the law book, desperately hoping to find a way to convince Winona to take him with her, and new fourth-year lesson on High Vulcan, as the other Vulcan teacher at the Academy could barely handle the third year language class. Besides, the mind-meld he'd done with Old Spock had dumped quite a bit of information in his head besides the implosion of Vulcan. He knew common Vulcan and High Vulcan, the second being a language that was now virtually extinct with the destruction of the traditional teachers of the Vulcan Race. Kirk had never spoken to Commander Spock in Vulcan because the opportunity had never come up and the younger Vulcan had never initiated a mind-meld, so he never knew that his old Captain spoke his native language fluently, much less that Jim knew High Vulcan. It was a pity, he would have liked to talk to his ex-bondmate in the other's native tongue…

Looking over the student roster for his classes, Jim wasn't really surprised to find several Vulcans in the language class. After the Narada fiasco, several of the green-skinned humanoids had joined Starfleet to present a strong front in the Federation while their fellows created New Vulcan. Those first few Vulcans had been successful, which led several other Vulcans to the conclusion that attending Starfleet Academy was a logical way to support their race in the eyes of the Federation. Therefore the Academy had seen an influx of Vulcans. In eyes of the Vulcans it was all quite logical, even if Vulcan students didn't assimilate very well into the Academy. They were amazing officers on the starships but they knew too much to find very many of the classes offered at the Academy interesting, much less challenging.

Maybe he could start up a chess club for the Vulcans? He was pretty sure he'd give any of the incoming Vulcans a run for their money on the chess board and in High Vulcan. Besides, it was something he had enjoyed doing with Spock before his crew abandoned him and he needed new chess partners anyway. The fact that a human could speak their complex, official language better than they could would probably piss a few of them off, but they'd just have to live with it because Jim _liked_ speaking High Vulcan and wasn't going to give up the class just because his students were going to be giving him exceedingly proper insults. Maybe he'd show they some better phrased insults? The ones Spock had started out with had been horrible… Anyway, Jim had very few things he liked anymore, and if Spock couldn't spoil playing chess or speaking High Vulcan for him then no other Vulcan would be able to do so.

At least his love for extreme sports was still untainted by the Enterprise. After all, no one and nothing could separate Jim Kirk from adrenalin rushes and a need for speed. That was impossible; he'd stop when he died – although McCoy had tried several times. Jim had satisfied his need for adventure and adrenalin these past few weeks while he'd been stuck on Earth by pulling almost all of the simulations at the Academy that had anything to extreme sports. Sadly, he'd found most of them to be lacking. It just wasn't the same when you couldn't feel the wind through your hair and you knew you weren't going to get hurt.

Hmm, there were a few Vulcans in his programming classes and the law class. He'd have to arrange a series of scenarios and mock-trials to see how good his new students were at twisting the law around… Some Vulcans were entirely too literal in their interpretation of the 'Fleet rulebook and caused problems for their crew before they loosened up. Jim figured he could get a head start in making the Starfleet Vulcans relax by showing them the different interpretations of the law. After all, James T. Kirk was a master at bending the rules. How else would he have gotten away with all those stunts at the Academy and on the Enterprise? And why exactly shouldn't he show the next generation how to do the same? After all, the Admiralty needed to learn how to loose up too and it would do them some good to deal with more inventive Captains and crew.

Jim would have to be up early tomorrow - his first class started at 8 am. He'd see how awake – and how willing to work together – the students in his command class were with a little simulation. Now which scenario would work best?


End file.
